AUBURN, Ala. – When the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame inducts former Auburn running back William Andrews next May, he will reunite with fellow hall of famers James Brooks and Joe Cribbs, Andrews' backfield mates on the Plains.
"I'm honored to say the least," said Andrews, who played for Doug Barfield's Tigers from 1976-78. "I'm glad that I'm with my buddies, James Brooks and Joe Cribbs, that I can join them. It's surely surprising. I'm grateful that they called me and let me know. When I got the call, I was flabbergasted."
At Auburn, Andrews served primarily as a blocker for Brooks and Cribbs. All three would go on to become All-Pros in the NFL.
Andrews rushed for 1,347 yards at Auburn and logged four 100-yard games, including a career-high 143 yards and a touchdown at Memphis State in 1976.
"The biggest thing is the camaraderie we had," Andrews said. "When we got there, we all gelled together and we tried to create something that we could look forward to later on in life, and I think that's what we did. We took pride in what we did, how we did it, and when we did it. We also went there to get an education. We weren't just there to play football."
Born on Christmas Day in 1955 in Thomasville, Georgia, Andrews was selected in the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons, where he made an instant impact, rushing for 167 yards in his debut.
In 1981, Andrews led the NFL with 2,036 yards from scrimmage while scoring 12 touchdowns. In 1983, he rushed for 1,567 yards and amassed 2,176 yards from scrimmage, finishing second in the league in both categories that season.
Andrews, who played for the Falcons from 1979-86, was selected to the Pro Bowl four consecutive seasons from 1980-83. When he retired after the 1986 season, his 5,986 career rushing yards ranked No. 24 all-time in the NFL.
Auburn's late 1970s running backs were dubbed the "ABC backfield," for Andrews, Brooks and Cribbs. The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame inducted Cribbs in 1991 and Brooks in 2016.
"I wish I could have gone in when they went in but that wasn't in the cards," Andrews said. "Life has a way of always coming back around and making sure that people recognize what the talent was back in the day. I was really grateful. It's a little late in seeing all the talent, but nevertheless it was there.
"If you look at all our records combined, there's no one back can beat it. The fundamentals we were taught in high school and coming all the way up through college and then the pros, that never leaves you.
"I had the talent to do many things – not just run, block or catch passes – I could do it all. The mindset was that we could do 30 different things in one second than most folk could do in a whole day."
A resident of Alpharetta, Georgia, Andrews will be inducted in Birmingham on May 7, 2022, along with fellow Class of '22 inductees Doyle Alexander, Keith Askins, Rusty Greer, Patrick Murphy, Jake Peavy, Philip Rivers and Justin Tuck.
Starting with the first class in 1969, this will be the 54th class inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, bringing the total number of inductees to 385.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer